How to Declutter and Make Your Social Stand Out
- Ilana
- Aug 28, 2017
- 5 min read
With the overwhelming range of choices we have as consumers, how can we as social media marketers successfully stand out amongst the clutter? Renowned entrepreneur Seth Godin emphasises being different and finding people who can influence and be passionate about your product or cause, but is that enough to target busy mothers like myself? We need all the help we can get, serious help!
No.... not from the companies selling to us, but as my Blog Post last week emphasised, us mothers are constantly seeking out help and advice about juggling our kids, career, shopping, and in my case I have added a Monash Master of Marketing to my busy mix. I am dreaming of getting through at least one more episode of Mad Men so I can get to the final season. One can dream!
Now where am I going with all of this other than the fact that I am really behind in my TV shows? As I investigate the power, passion and techniques of "getting your ideas to spread", the more I realise how influential the "Mommy Movement" is.
The most successful brands that target mothers become mavens, or in a more lamen’s term, helpful experts on subject matter that provide useful advice to help mothers. It is not just about making the sale but it's about being helpful, creating a connection and giving value to the consumer and therefore encouraging their ideas to spread. Kraft and Huggies are renowned for this type of branding, by creating online content that is helpful to mothers from pregnancy, recipes, budgeting to eating healthily.
Proctor and Gamble used emotion and great timing to get everyone's attention 100 days before the Olympic games, through this viral video honouring mothers just in time for Mothers Day (tear jerker alert):
American Greetings created an equally powerful video just in time for Mother's Day in 2014:
Now, let's check out this important article published in AdWeek just last week, August 21, 2017: http://www.adweek.com/digital/how-one-publisher-is-using-data-to-make-insanely-viral-facebook-videos-for-millennial-moms/
Can you believe that there are MASSIVE media companies creating algorithms to determine what online videos should be produced so they will most likely be shared and ultimately turn viral and who is their target? Mothers! - more specifically the Millennial (or on my case Xennial) Mums. And...as it turns out, there is an immense amount that goes into the elements of a video to ensure we watch it, feel something and ultimately share it, to improve its virality.
The millennial moms wield $200 billion USD in annual spending in the USA and a trillion dollars globally, so this is a really powerful business, but they key is doing it well.
Guy Oranim, the savvy CEO of First Media's"Blossom", "Blusher" and "So Yummy", all of which target the aforementioned Millenial/Xennial Moms, says his company literally tests hundreds of videos to see what people are most likely to view and share, and use a data algorithm to predict whether or not a video will go viral...I should add that they are ridiculously good at what they do - they actually broke a world record!
"Blossom" has become the go-to Facebook Page for DIY tips and its partner pages "So Yummy" and "Blusher" videos are also very popular through their cooking and make up tips respectively. These Facebook Pages and YouTube channels use eye catching fast forwarded video to primarily appeal to mothers who want expert advice but simply don’t have the time to get through an episode of a cooking show. (Who has time to watch Masterchef these days?).
Now back to the aforementioned world record. Let’s take a look at this video titled: "Get Clever with Your Clutter.... and these 7 organization hacks," produced by Blossom, which has received legendary status by being shared the most amount of times on Facebook than any other video. I repeat the MOST shared video on Facebook in HISTORY with over 384 million views. What is the video about? It is simple – DIY tips to de-clutter your home. What does the video start with? Attention grabbing images of bright ladies underwear.
Check it out here:
Using some of Guy Oranim's advice in Adweek's article, he explains: “We screen our videos...We need some kind of wow effect—this is the share moment—when the information is either inspiring or useful, or just maybe cool enough to share with my friends.”
According to renowned super cool and uber young Wharton professor and author Jonah Berger, when we share an awesome video, we create a sense of social status or social currency between the people with which we share.
In addition to writing a best selling book titled "Contagious: Why Things Catch On", he formulated a simple framework to create contagious ideas called the SIX STEPPS:
1) Social Currency - Looking good to our friends when we share this info
2) Trigger - Creating content that is memorable
3) Emotion - The message should resonate with the consumer and not be all about the brand
4) Public - Design the content so that it is easily shareable
5) Practical - Is it offering relevant and useful advice?
6) Story - Keep the content and voice fresh and authentic.
Jonah provides a brilliant synopsis of his best-selling book in this presentation to Google, explaining how simple ideas create a massive impact just by strategically utilising STEPPS's key elements:
However, if you are lacking the 40 minutes it will take to get through Jonah's pearls of wisdom above, take a look at this video that I personally found very compelling and easy to share, and as it turns out, so did millions of other people, 15 million plus to be exact. And who were they targeting? You guessed it!! Moms who have NO time and who need solutions! In this case, how to curate all your social media pics into albums through an APP:
Now let's get back to some of First Media's most successful videos, one of which was produced by So Yummy, released just before the commencement of the USA and Northern Hemisphere summer school holidays last month, in July 2017...Perfect timing for Moms desperate to find things to do, or in my case "attempt to do" (I am the perfect #nailedit fail candidate).
I cannot imagine having the time to make all this stuff, but clearly there are 2 million plus other viewers who do, or like me, wish they could. Mind you, I wonder if that pasta in the video above (5.19) will taste as fabulous if I make it without the prawns? So Yummy!
There are many other content producers who know how to create viral content extremely well: Unilad, Lad Bible and of course ViralThread, but if you take a look at the table here http://tubularinsights.com/top-online-video-creators you will see THE MOST cumulative views (FB and YouTube combined) is achieved by "5 minute Crafts". And who do you think they are targeting? Yes, you guessed it...Moms!
To end this mama-focused social media marketing post, here is a fabulous little song that hit 1 billion PLUS views on Youtube from the hit movie Bad Moms (I couldn't resist!).
Did someone say Hey Mama?
And just one more because it's another Mama song (note the lyrics have absolutely nothing to do with the video but GREAT SONG)
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